The house is messy (you don't say?) I know I should not be sitting here writing, reading, listening to music downloads. I should be doing loads of dishes, tackling the mountains of laundry, vacuuming, sweeping, yada yada yada.
Instead I sit here listening to Colin Hay's most recent album and reading blogs I discover through other blogs, trying to break through the fog. I have discovered some that are so well written and demonstrate very sophisticated thinking. I find myself in awe of these people, and inevitably the comparisons arise. I am nowhere near as articulate as them. My mind is an alphabet soup, a jumble of thoughts that sometimes find their way out in spurts, halfway cooked, not very deep, bare bones outlines of the cacophony inside.
Am I turning stupid and don't know it?
We are all trying to make sense of that which makes no sense. Your way is no worse than anyone else's. I too have much to do, yet here I sit.
ReplyDeleteComparing your writing to anybody else's is like comparing the Queen Mary to your little fishing boat. They're both perfect at what they were built to accomplish. The fishing boat isn't the most luxurious cruising you'll ever do, but the Queen Mary's not gonna help you catch fish in your favorite lake.
Oh, and I just made that up, so I'm not sure if it makes sense. Everybody tells me I talk in metaphors.
A line engraved in my memory from the beautiful "Desiderata" by Max Ehrmann says...
ReplyDelete"If you compare yourself with others,you may become vain and bitter;for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
It's true, if we allow ourselves to start judging our writing as being anything other than an expression of who we are, it loses it's value in our eyes. We are our own harshest critics. You are not writing here to earn a grade, or to be considered for inclusion in some renowned anthology, you are writing to express yourself. You do it beautifully! Please don't stop being just who you are. Wolfie explained it eloquently.
As for sitting at the computer - here I am too. I think I should just get a tiny efficiency apartment - with room for a bed and computer table. That's all I seem to really need. But there is a wonderful community of sharing just at my fingertips! :-)
Thanks, Josie. I appreciate that. One of the causes of my lengthy period of writer's block was my tendency to compare myself with others, who invariably were more talented, wittier, more dedicated or prolific than I felt I was. I should be careful not to go down that road again, as it brought me a lot of frustration and pain.
ReplyDeleteIngrid
No one who listens to Colin Hay is stupid. I knew I liked you!
ReplyDeleteAnd it's no good going down that comparison road. I hate when I get stuck in that place! There's always someone who is doing something better than we are, but that doesn't say anything about how well we are doing or what our worth is.